JESUS: OUR KING JOHN 12:12-13, 14-15; 18: 33-35, 36-37; 19: 1-3, 14-16.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JOHN 12.
Last Sunday in Mark 8 we left Jesus in the area of Caesarea Philippi. Jesus had preached in the villages of that area. Peter had answered the question, “Whom say ye that I am,” with the great confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” That confession identified Jesus as more than a prophet; He was the long awaited Messiah; the Anointed One of God. Then Jesus foretells of his rejection, death and resurrection. He is now ready to go to Jerusalem where this will all take place.
In Matt. 16:24 and Luke 8:23 Jesus called the people to Him, with His disciples, and said unto them, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (You will want to read Matt. 16: 25-27.)
Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John into a high mountain (probably Mt. Hermon), and they witnessed His transfiguration as He conversed with Elijah and Moses concerning His forthcoming experience in Jerusalem. It was there that God the Father proclaimed for the second time, “This is My beloved Son, hear Him.”
When they descended the mountain Jesus was confronted with a boy and his agonizing father. Jesus healed the boy of an unclean spirit. Luke 9:43 says, “The people were amazed at the mighty power of God.” Leaving the crowd Jesus and His disciples proceeded to Capernaum and entered into a house, probably the home of Peter.
In Mark 10 Jesus and His disciples passed down through Perea on the east of the Jordan, crossed over into Judea on the way to Jerusalem, where He was to fulfill His mission by dying as the great Sin Offering on a cross of shame.
Although Jesus had been absent from Judea for some time His fame proceeded Him, and multitudes of the people resorted to Him, ready to hear what He had to say. Luke 9:51 says, “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” He knew exactly what awaited Him there. His twelve had fear and concern as He repeated what would take place in Jerusalem.
Many evens have taken place between John 7: 9 and 7: 10. In vs. 9 He is in Galilee. In vs. 10 in Jerusalem. In Luke 9: 51-53 we see Christ on His way to Jerusalem. In Luke 10:38 He is in Bethany very near Jerusalem.
The incidents from John 7 through John 10:21 took place in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles which took place about the middle of October. The Feast of Dedication was always observed on the 25th Kislev, that is December.
The incidents recorded from John 7 through John 10: 21 took place in close connection with the Feast of Tabernacles, then between vs. John 10: 21 and vs. 22 thee has been a gap of about 2 months in the ministry of our Lord. The Feast of Dedication was a comparatively recent one, instituted to commemorate the cleansing and dedication of the Temple under Judas Maccabaeus after it had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes. It was commonly called the Feast of Lights.
It was nearing Passover time in the spring of A.D. 30. Jesus was 33 years and six months of age. In Bethany, a little village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Jesus performed the most audacious and public miracle of His ministry. His friend Lazarus had been dead four days and was already entombed. Jesus commanded that the tomb be opened and then He commanded Lazarus to come out of it. When Lazarus came out of his crypt, grave clothes and all, everyone was amazed and the word quickly spread to nearby Jerusalem.
This put Jesus in favor with the people, of course, and they revered Him as One from God. As long as Jesus performed miracles in Galilee, far away from the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, He was not perceived as much of a threat. But now, rather than rejoicing at Jesus’ miraculous power, the chief priest and Pharisees took it as a direct assault on their leadership of the people, and in vv. 45-53 began to plot how they could dispose of this trouble maker.
In the meantime large numbers of people came out of Jerusalem to Bethany to see both Jesus and Lazarus. This further threatened and angered the Jewish leaders, so they plotted to kill both Jesus and Lazarus because so many people “were deserting them and believing in Jesus.”
At last many of the Jewish leaders who were with Mary and saw the raising of Lazarus from the dead finally believed on Jesus. But some went to the Pharisees and reported it to them. Vs. 53 says, “So from that time on the Jewish leaders began plotting Jesus death.”
Vs. 55 says, “The Passover, a Jewish holy day, was near, and many country people arrived in Jerusalem several days early so they could go through the cleansing ceremony before the Passover began.
In the meantime the chief priests and Pharisees had publicly announced “that anyone seeing Jesus must report Him immediately so that they could arrest Him.” It is expedient that Jesus should die, and Lazarus also. We do not know if they did put Lazarus to death. Probably not as the death of Jesus put down the threat to the leaders.
PLEASE READ JOHN 12: 12-13.
The next day after Jesus was anointed with the perfume by Mary in Bethany the news that Jesus was on His way from Bethany to Jerusalem swept through the city, and a huge crowd of Passover visitors took palm branches and went down the road to meet Him. Jesus is coming deliberately to Jerusalem for “His hour.”
His foes had tried to take Him and trap him, and issued a proclamation that if anyone should know where He was to report it, that they might take Him. Now He was coming of His own volition for His hour. We speak of His entry as triumphal, and such it was form the side of the heavenly, the determined counsel, and foreknowledge of God.
Thee wee three entries: he first day, He rode into the city, came to the Temple, and looked round upon all things, and left without saying a word.
On the next day He went to the Temple and cleansed it. On the third day the rulers gathered round Him. John only recorded the first of these three entries, and that in a very condensed form. He tells of the greetings of the crowds as He came.
The people took down palm branches, waved them, and flung them down on the highway. As He approached, they sang sentences from the great Hallel. “Hosanna; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”
It was a remarkable thing for the crowds to sing, when Jesus was coming. The rulers were hostile, the crowds themselves fickle; and yet there came this sudden outburst of enthusiasm.
All four Gospels tell of Jesus’ royal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It is one of the few incidents in Jesus’ life reported by all four Gospels. By this action, He presented Himself officially to the nation as the Messiah and the Son of God.
John included some details not in the other Gospels, and he did not tell some things that they include. For example, John tied this closely to the resurrection of Lazarus, but He did not tell how Jesus got the animal on which He rode. John also gave the precise time of the royal entry. He emphasized that the Passover was near, and all the people—friends and enemies---were waiting to see what Jesus would do.
Jesus’ worst enemies had already decided that He must die. His friends were hoping that He would openly declare He was the Messiah. So excitement was running high as Jesus came to Bethany six days before the Passover. The day in vs. 12 was a Sunday. Thus Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter.
Word got out that Jesus was going to travel the few miles form Bethany to Jerusalem. Many people came to see what would happen. When news of Jesus’ approach reached Jerusalem, the large crowd, from the city went out to greet Him. Jerusalem was always crowded for this feast, which commemorated Israel’s deliverance by the hand of God from Egyptian slavery. On this year the crowds were especially large because of the possibility that Jesus would come.
Two groups were present: those (probably mostly from Galilee) who entered the city with Jesus and those who came out to see Him. But the responses of both groups seemed positive. The people took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet Him. Only John’s Gospel identifies the kind of trees from which the people took the branches. Using palm leaves on such an occasion was a way to honor a victor or a king.
Palm branches, a nationalistic symbol of Judea since the days of the Maccabees in about 160 B.C., were waved in honor of rulers, and were used in the fall of the year during the Feast of Tabernacles.
The cries of the people bear this out. “Hosanna” is a transliteration of a Hebrew word that means “give salvation now.” It implies the need to be saved and the trust that Jesus could save them. The question is, “Saved from what?” Jesus had come to save people from their sins----a mission He knew included suffering and death. Most of those who cried Hosanna probably wee thinking of a messiah who would save them from the Romans and restore the kingdom of David.
Vs. 13 is drawn from Psalm 118: 25-26. These words in the psalm seem to have been a welcome to worshipers. In John they obviously are applied to Jesus. The crowd used the word blessed to praise or bless Jesus, not to pray that He might be blessed. The crowd used two titles for Jesus: He that cometh and the King of Israel. “The coming one” is used of the Messiah. John the Baptist asked in Matt. 11: 3, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”
The primary title the crowd used, however, was the King of Israel. There are relatively few uses of this title. The wise men came seeking the King of the Jews in Matt 2: 1-2. When Jesus called Nathanael as a disciple, Nathanael called Jesus “the Son of God” and “the King of Israel.” Jesus was very cautious about being called a King, because the people were expecting a different kind of king than He had come to be.
After Jesus fed the five thousand, the crowds came to try to make Him accept the title. When He saw that they intended to take Him by force. He withdrew into the mountains. He first constrained the disciples to enter a boat and embark. This suggests that they were in sympathy with those who wanted to make Him king.
Then next day the crowd confronted Jesus on the other side of the lake. During the dialogue Jesus told them that they sought bread that perishes. He claimed to be the Bread of life, and He called for them to accept Him as more than an earthly king. This incident shows that Jesus refused to be their kind of king.
Why did Jesus initiate the royal entry, which was a claim to be King? He did it because the time had come for Him to fulfill his role a Suffering Servant as well as King. The cross was on the road to the crown. Therefore, Jesus accepted the crowd’s cries that He was the King of Israel even though He realized that most of those who praised Him did not understand the kind of King He is.